440 Prof. W. H, Flower on a Suhfossil Whale 



The interorbital space is flat, and its width is two fifths or 

 one third of the length of the head. The upper lip is mode- 

 rately thick, and forms the front margin of the snout. The 

 anterior margins of the two mandibular bones form an ob- 

 tuse angle ; and the cleft of the mouth is very much broader 

 than deep. The prasorbital is angularly bent, and has its 

 extremity truncated and distinctly denticulated. The extre- 

 mity of the maxillary is conspicuous behind and below the 

 mouth. There are nineteen series of scales between the 

 spinous dorsal and the snout. The pectoral extends to the 

 seventh scale of the lateral line, and is as long as the head, 

 the length of the snout not included ; it has no elongate scale 

 in its axil. The anterior dorsal commences above the ninth 

 scale of the lateral line, midway between the snout and the 

 base of the caudal fin ; its anterior spines are stout, the first 

 the longest, two thirds of the length of the head ; there is an 

 elongate pointed scale at its base. The soft dorsal and the 

 anal are enveloped in scales, and lower than the spinous 

 dorsal ; the former commences above the eighteenth scale, or 

 above the middle of the anal fin. Caudal distinctly emar- 

 ginate. 



Two specimens, 1\ inches long, were sent by Dr. Meyer 

 from Macassar. 



XLVII. — On a Suhfossil Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) dis- 

 covered in Cornwall. By William Heney Flower, 

 F.R.S. 



In the Museum of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall 

 at Penzance are preserved some bones of a whale, which were 

 discovered more than forty years ago at Pentuan, in the parish 

 of St. Austell. The circumstances under which they were 

 found are of considerable geological interest, and are fully 

 described in a paper communicated to the Society by the late 

 Mr. J. W. Colenso, entitled " A Description of Happy Union 

 Tin Stream- Work at Pentuan " (read October 1829), and 

 published in the fourth volume of the Society's Transactions. 

 It appears that they were found about half a mile from the 

 present sea-shore, and at a depth of rather more than twenty 

 feet from the surface, imbedded in a stratum of sea-sand, 

 above which was a bed of rough river-sand and gravel, and 

 which overlay a remarkable deposit of sand containing timber 

 trees (chiefly oaks), remains of various land-animals, red deer, 

 oxen and boar, human skulls, and, at a still lower level, stumps 

 of trees in situ, moss, leaves, hazel-nuts, &c. Beneath these 



